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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I talk a lot about being frugal, reusing, distinguishing wants from needs, reducing, and scouring Craiglist and secondhand shops.

Lest I be a complete and utter hypocrite, I wanted to share my recent indulgence with you.

I found this French vintage wire basket on Etsy and I went weak in the knees. I showed it to Matt, and, although he thought it was cool, the $98 price tag kept him from declaring, "We should get it."

I closed my computer and occupied myself with other pursuits (like redoing our front walkway with flagstone and moon rocks and refinishing our mid-century modern living room chair by sanding off the old finish and sewing new cushions).

However, I kept thinking about that basket. I kept seeing the little metal knots and that darling tag in my head.

I went back to the site in the morning. I tried to convince myself that $123 (base price + shipping) was entirely too much for one piece of home decor. Then I pushed myself to figure out exactly where I would put the piece--if I did end up buying it. I realized the basket was only 8" x 8". It wouldn't fit very well on our bigger book shelves.

Suddenly, I glanced at our succulent desk (it's an old student desk with succulent plants on top) and realized that it had a little cubby hole that might be the perfect size for the basket. I grabbed the tape measure and learned that the little hole was about 10" x 10".

At that point, I could no longer resist the temptation. I decided to use my allowance money and some of my left over birthday money to buy that little wire basket and call it my own.

I'm crossing my fingers and my toes in the hope that I will love this precious specimen in person as much as I do in photos. I hope that it settles into our home for the next 50 or so years (then it will only be $2.46/year).

10 comments:

Oh it's lovely, I can picture it, from what you described, looking great :)

I've been spending a lot of time at the moment trying to convince myself we need things/don't need things for the wedding as it hits crunch time and we only have two paychecks before the day eeek. It can be tough distinguishing wants and needs and a little disheartening but I know when the day comes, I won't miss those little unnecessary things.

Every now and then you just have to splurge. Especially when something "speaks" to you. I have loved baskets like that since my very first swimming lesson where we had metal baskets to store our stuff in. I've been thinking about trying to find some baskets like that for the boy's room and maybe a couple extras to use for my own stuff.

@ mic: I know, I know. That's what Matt said (although he did end up saying we could pay for half of it out of our home improvement budget). I just have too many projects right now: I'm redoing the walkway up to the front of our house, stripping/staining/reupholstering a mid-century modern chair, and sewing a sundress.

I love your math!! I do that with every purchase I make. I weigh how much I'm going to wear something or how long I intend to use it on the price. If i can get something worn where it costs less than a dollar for every day I wear it or use it I'm a happy shopper =]. So far my best clothing buy was a hoodie off of etsy. It was 47$ and I've worn it wayyyyyyyyy more than 47 times =]. The basket was gorgeous I'm sure it was worth the splurge.

Good for you! We all deserve a completely outrageous piece of home decor every now and then. And what a unique purchase! I am sure you will be able to make it last 50 years and more. You must post pictures once it's up and living on your succulent desk (love that, btw)!

Us

We're the kind of people who would rather be outside than in. We drink mostly water. A lot of it. We're the kind of people who put on costumes at Halloween and drive around town delivering brownies (with bows) to friends and random people in the service industry. We cook four nights a week and eat out three. We're passionate about making the world better, and we spend lots of time actually trying to do it.